Harassment by husband and sexual jealousy are the motives behind the murder of an employee of the East Coast Railway on the night of June 24.
The case was cracked by a special team led by DCP (Zone- II) G. Ramgopal Naik, ACP (North) V. Bheema Rao, and Gopalpatnam Police Station SHO Bala Surya Rao.
The police arrested three persons, including the wife of the deceased, in the case here on Wednesday.
Sistu Lokanadham’s decomposed body, stuffed in a gunnysack, was found on June 28 near a culvert in the Narava area under the Gopalpatnam Police Station limits. The police established the identity of the victim with the help of an identity card found on his person.
A special team was constituted to unravel the mystery as there was a rumour that the victim was a police officer.
Investigation led the police to the wife of the victim Sistu Thulasamma, her brother Chintada Ramanna, and the woman’s paramour Thammineni Subrahmanyam.
Dr. Ramgopal Naik said that the woman developed intimacy with Subrahmanyam, her neighbour, following a strained relationship with her husband. “Both of them were classmates at their native village in Srikakulam and the relationship continued after marriage. Since she was physically and mentally harassed allegedly by her husband, the intimacy developed further. Subrahmanyam took an outsourced job in a bank at Gopalapatnam and moved in as a neighbour about four years ago,” the DCP said.
Thulasamma roped in her brother Ramanna and the trio hatched a plan to eliminate Lokanadham about two months ago. She was confident that if her husband was got rid of, she would get his job and could live happily with her paramour.
On June 24, when Lokanadham was asleep, the trio smothered him to death using a quilt. While Thulasamma and Ramanna pressed the quilt over his face, Subrahmanyam pinned down his legs. Then they stuffed the body in a gunnysack and dumped it near a culvert about one-km from their house. On how they zeroed in on the accused, the DCP said that Thulasamma behaved abnormally and there was no emotion on her face. Moreover, none bothered to register a complaint despite the deceased going missing for over three days.
When questioned, she confessed to the crime.
The accused have been booked under IPC Sections 302 and 201.
